[tech] Project "What is this thing?" #2

Mark Tearle mtearle at ucc.asn.au
Mon Jun 11 19:09:39 AWST 2018


Hi Felix

Comments interspersed below ...



On Thu, 7 Jun 2018, at 6:57 AM, Felix von Perger wrote:
> 


> The second instalment of this series resulted in what was allegedly
> part of the "original" Murphy (or murphies) being dragged out from
> under the desks.> 
>  After filling a whole carton with 8" disks that were previously
>  stacked inside of the box and a lot of dusting, this was the result.
>  The text on the middle handwritten label on the AM-500 front panel
>  reads "Sealed by [JMJ] Do not open!!!!".> 
>  The case has a number of ports on the side, a number of scarily large
>  capacitors in the bottom of the case and an empty S-100 backplane.> 
>   
> 
>  Does anyone know what boards would have been installed in this box
>  and what might have happened to them? Understandably to boot it must
>  have had storage of some kind or some kind of ROM (if it was even a
>  computer on its own). Specifically regarding this blue box, is it
>  worth anything to the club and if it were to be thrown away would
>  anyone want it (or want to sell it for us)?> 

This chassis (and associated) bits came back to the club room from out
at Shenton Park.    AFAIK this was always referred to as "Murphy"
As artifacts go, this is probably the most earliest club related one
("so in a DO NOT DISPOSE category")
I've never seen it with cards in though (>1993 onwards)

>  Next to "murphy" under the desk was the computery thing with a wooden
>  case. It seems like the power button needs a key to operate (anyone
>  know where that might be? :P). Fortunately the case is reasonably
>  airtight so everything inside was in a relatively dust-free
>  condition.> 
>  Talking to [JVP] confirmed that the 8" disk drive in this box was one
>  of the original drives used by Murphy (and uses a voice-coil actuated
>  head and electronic disk ejection), although apparently was not
>  originally used in this particular hardware configuration.> 
>   
> 
>  Loose inside the case was a single 8" floppy drive, a plastic bag
>  containing a stack of paper documentation including a description of
>  the S-100 bus, a transparent sheet of plastic with what appears to
>  be the original mask/artwork used to create the green-grey circuit
>  board visible at the front of the photo on the left (below) and a
>  loose 50pin cable that looks like it could be used to connect to the
>  floppy drive.>   
> 
>  The wooden box seems to have a full assortment of boards mounted on
>  its backplane (including what looks like a handmade diagnostics
>  board, two CPU boards (connected by ribbon cable), 4*16K memory
>  boards, a disk controller (complete with ROM to boot from floppy) and
>  an IO board (6 serial ports according to [JVP]).> 

Okay, this gets more interesting.   This machine appeared in the club
room sometime in the last decade (around the burst of enthusiasm for
hardware things from Craig Williams (aka Reaps)).   Harry McNally knew
something of the machine ...
>  Is this a full Alpha Micro computer and could it be possible to power
>  it on? If one were to test, what steps would be necessary to ensure
>  that any failing/failed components do not cause damage to the rest?
>  When was it last powered on successfully? Also, what hardware and
>  software would be required to get it to boot and produce an output of
>  some sort?> 

The point to start would be checking the health of the power supply and
working from there.   The other place to start would be to gather as
much documentation as you can find on the internet.

>  Hopefully this raises some interesting discussions and I appreciate
>  any time you may be able to devote to having a look.> 

There are some links here - 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Microsystems
https://ampm.floodgap.com/
https://ampm.floodgap.com/www/s100.htm
http://www.s100computers.com/Hardware%20Folder/Alpha%20Micro/AM-100/AM-100.htmhttp://www.s100computers.com/Hardware%20Folder/Alpha%20Micro/AM500%20HDC/AM-500.htm
>  Thank you for your contributions,
> 
>  Felix von Perger
>  UCC Secretary 2018
> 
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
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--
Mark Tearle <mtearle at ucc.asn.au>

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